Hello,
What did the Communist Chinese Air Force use the B24's for ?
I understand that four were defectors from the Taiwanese ( Baughers has three listed) but did the "Reds" have others that had remained in mainland China ?
Alex

B-24s were supplied to the Nationalist Chinese forces during World War II. Aside from defectors and captured examples used by the Communist Chinese, it would be helpful to know the source of your information.

I have checked Baugher's sources - Alwyn Lloyd's, Liberator America's Global Bomber (p.512), provides an identical listing of the 38 B-24M's used by the CNAF, with no further comment. The Ernest McDowell Consolidated B-24D-M (Arco/Aircam, undated & unpaginated) reference has a colour profile of CNAF B-24M 44-42462 and two photographs of CNAF B-24M's. One of the photographs depicts B-24M 44-42462 (actually marked 442462, and directly below the serial there is a similar marking ie - B-24002). The B-24's are in natural metal finish with rudders marked with blue and white horizontal stripes. On the nose of this aircraft is a Mickey Mouse-like (?) figure holding a bomb.

From "Red Wings Over the Yalu" by Xiaoming Zhang, some snippets of B-24 action in the Chinese Civil War:

Jun 26, 1946
Liu Shanben (American-trained pilot) defected to Yan'an in a B-24. The bomber was destroyed in a Nationalist air raid two months later.
(...later: oops. typo. 1946 - as corrected above - not 1945 as originally typed. )

May 24, 1949
Nationalist B-24s raid Beijing, prompting the PRCAAF to organise an air defence squadron of 6 captured and refurbished P-51s.

Feb 6, 1950
Between Oct 1949 and Feb 1950, Shanghai sustains 26 air raids. On 6 Feb 1950, 14 Nationalist aircraft (B-24s and B-25s) raid the city in its most serious attack. More than 1400 people were killed in the wide damaging raid on powerplant and shipyard areas.

Alex,
I suspect that they didn't use them very much at all - lack of trained crews perhaps being just one significant reason.

Lennart Andersson's book "A History of Chinese Aviation" notes a US Intelligence report indicating the Chinese Communist Forces had control/access of the following on 1-April-1949:
- three B-24s, three B-25s, nine Mosquitos, one P-47, eight P-51s and a number of transports and trainers.

The first Chinese Communist unit was formed in July 1949, consisting of:
- six P-51Ds, two Mosquitos and two PT-19s.

It would be interesting to see when each of the B-24 defections occurred. Some of the aircraft may have been sitting around for some years and not in serviceable condition by the time anyone on the Communist side even considered using them. (Not really in the Peasant Revolution manner to bomb cities; and not sure if 1 B-24 would have much effect on a large widespread army in the field?)